Guardian Prize 29,105 by Brummie

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A tougher than usual puzzle from Brummie for this week’s Prize.

This took Timon and I around 90 minutes to complete, but we were left with one answer (22 across) that doesn’t parse properly. At best it’s an indirect anagram, at worst it’s just an error.  In fact the clue was changed at some point, but I have used the version in the printed edition of the paper that I bought.

If there was a theme, it eluded us and I can’t see one now.

I uploaded this blog to the website before this week’s access problems occurred, and then returned to it on Friday evening to update it.  Thanks to Kenmac for getting the hosting company to fix things eventually.

Thanks also to Brummie.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9 PROFITEER
Academic with a special quality — always diminished as an exploiter (9)
PROF (academic) IT (special quality) EER (always in a shortened form).
10 ODEON
Some lines about cinema (5)
ODE (some lines) ON.
11, 27 DEATH MASK
Lifelike cast? Yes and no (5,4)
Cryptic definition.
12 SEMIBREVE
Note house beer’s off around five (9)
SEMI (house), V(five) in *BEER.
13 ENDGAME
Aim to take hunted animals when mating is imminent? (7)
END (aim) GAME (hunted animals). Of course a chess game may end in a draw, hence the question mark.
14 ERRATUM
Expressions of hesitation about telltale’s slip (7)
RAT (telltale) inside ER and UM (expressions of hesitation).
17 YIELD
Bear in cave (if switched round) (5)
CAVE IN with its parts switched round. A clever device that I don’t remember seeing before.
19 TUT
That’s remiss, whichever way you view it (3)
The answer seemed likely to be a palindrome, and once we had the two Ts, only TUT seemed to fit the clue, but I’m not sure we could have got it without the crossers.
20 SCRAM
Get away from studio head and press (5)
S(tudio) CRAM (press). Best read as an imperative: SCRAM!
21 TEREDOS
Being without oxygen somehow deters shipworms (7)
O(xygen) in *DETERS. I remember coming across this word for the first time in a Magpie crossword a couple of years ago.
22 CURTSEY
Bob‘s rather twee, Roger admitted (7)
R in CUTESY (rather twee); but of course the S is in the wrong place.  The replacement clue was: “Bob Short, OK on reflection”. That does at least parse.  The annotated solution doesn’t help, just indicating an anagram of CURTSEY.
24 CRICKETER
Player, chirpy thing, about to make a comeback (9)
CRICKET (chirpy thing) RE (rev).
26 EPSOM
Keep Somalian boxing course (5)
Hidden (“boxed”) in “keEP SOMalian”.
28 PAGAN
Heathen state taken by Greek god (5)
GA (Georgia) in PAN (Greek god).
29 BLEACHERS
They clean the cheap seats (9)
Double definition. We wondered if there ought to have been some indication that this (the seats) is primarily an American usage.
DOWN
1 SPOD
Head of secondary school’s an excessively studious type (4)
S(econdary) POD (school, e.g. of whales).
2 HOWARD
Question a way to present a doomed queen (6)
HOW (question) A RD (a way): the doomed queen is Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, beheaded in 1542.
3 HIGHHANDED
Overbearing drunk had to accept sorry end (4-6)
HIGH (drunk) *END in HAD.
4 NESSIE
Sense alien is circling island — creature from the depths? (6)
I(sland) in *SENSE.
5 DRUMBEAT
Drink in bed provoked a tense player’s stroke (8)
RUM (drink) in *BED, A T(ense). “Provoked” as an anagram indicator seems a bit of a stretch.

 
6 TOMB
Thumb book: Sepulchre (4)
TOM (Thumb) B(ook).
7 DETECTOR
Discerning person put off holding court ball (8)
CT (court) O (ball ) inside DETER (put off).
8 KNEE
Joint provided by Kennedy’s firstborn (4)
K(ennedy) NEE (born). You have to separate “first” and “born” for the cryptic syntax to work.
13 EGYPT
Country dancing finally commandeered by criminal type (5)
(dancin)G in *TYPE.
15 RESURGENCE
Revival of Greece runs out (10)
*(GREECE RUNS).
16 MUMMY
‘Quiet, dear’ is an example of preservation (5)
MUM (quiet) MY (dear). Both “my” and “dear” are fairly meaningless expressions of mild dismay.
18 EARNINGS
Wishes to dispose of capital income (8)
(y)EARNINGS.
19 TEST TUBE
It could help in making a child try a transport system (4,4)
A simple charade; the definition refers to in vitro fertilisation.
22 CARTER
President‘s minder takes Trump’s lead (6)
T(rump) in CARER.
23 SESTET
Poetic lines getting controversial treatment in collection (6)
EST (electric shock treatment) in SET. A sestet can be the last six lines of a sonnet.
24 CAPE
Feature of Superman’s head (4)
Cryptic definition, I suppose.
25 KING
Considering dropping spare member on board (4)
(thin)KING, where thin = spare, and considering = thinking.
27
See 11

24 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,105 by Brummie”

  1. Thank you bridgesong for explaining 7d. We had DEFER = put off and couldn’t see how a defector was a discerning person.
    Quite challenging this week – thank you Brummie. Lots to like but my favourite I think was 25d (thin)KING

  2. Enjoyable challenge.

    New for me: SPOD.

    Favourites: KNEE, KING.

    I could not parse 17a apart from YIELD = cave. (luckily it got explained to me by someone over at the Guardian site on 1 July when 225 was still inaccessible)

    Thanks, both.

    * posting now as I could not access the site since 27 June. I use a Mac and it would not even work with http instead of https.

  3. I was delighted to finish this prize crossword, I couldn’t do Paul’s on 1 July so I am very glad 225 is back. My iPad would not open it in any form.
    Many thanks Brummie and Birdsong

  4. Many thanks all, especially the website menders. I was impeded by inserting SCAPE instead of SCRAM and PERM instead of CAPE … and ultimately defeated by SPOD and DETECTOR.

    Important to have the question mark at the end of 13A. Until rapidplay online chess embedded, endgames were infrequent and rarely contested to the point of mate.

  5. The Egyptian theme became evident close to completion: EGYPT, TOMB, TUT, DEATH MASK, PAGAN, MUMMY, HOWARD and CARTER.
    I particularly enjoyed Brummie’s clever surfaces and found this both challenging and fair. Getting the first solution, PROFITEER, helped motivation after failing to get a single answer on the first two readings of Picaroon’s prize in the previous week. LOI was, appropriately, the elegantly clued ENDGAME.

  6. This one was tough in places, with some simple write ins for balance (KNEE, PAGAN and MUMMY, for example). I failed to complete, with SESTET holding out. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen EST for electric shock treatment. (ECT for electroconvulsive therapy, yes.)

    Choldunk@4. I also saw PERM as a possible solution for 24d but didn’t write it in, awaiting crossers.

    I bunged and shrugged at CURTSEY and YIELD, meaning to come back to the parsings later, but somehow never did.

    I thought TUT was quite good: ‘That’s remiss’ is a long form of what is normally said almost under one’s breath, if it’s actually said at all.

    EPSOM appeared in the Guardian crossword three times in the month in which the Derby is run there.

    Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong.

  7. Thanks, lenmasterman @5, for pointing out the Egyptian theme. That would have helped with TUT.

  8. 25d: Member on board? I don’t think that really works, assuming the reference is to a chessboard. “Man on board” would be better.

    17a: I got YIELD (it couldn’t be anything else) but had no idea why. The device is clever, but surely the cleverness defeats the purpose if the solver can’t understand it, or was I unusually obtuse that day?

    I did enjoy everything else.

  9. Not one of Brummie ‘s best, I thought, even without 22a.
    29a I shared bridgesong’s doubts about “provoked” as an anagrind.
    6a I agree with sheffielld hatter about EST. I parsed it as ETS = (EU) Emissions Trading System which is controversial but isn’t a treatment.
    On the other hand I queried DETECTOR as a person rather than a thing but Chambers’ first definition is “a person who detects” so what do I know?
    Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong

  10. Thanks for the blog, shame about CURTSEY , these slips happen very easily.
    YIELD is very neat and KNEE a clever Playtex.
    EST is in the song ” All the Madmen” by Bowie
    Good spot by Len@5 , maybe KING as well. If anyone does not believe in curses please note that every single person present at the tomb opening is now dead.

  12. Like VicTim@1, I took defer for put off, justifying the definition by the idea that the defector may discern the BS that ‘their’ side is putting out.

    Didn’t understand “in cave (if switched round)”, which was incredibly devious.

    Not being too familiar with the alternative spelling of curtsy, I followed the cryptic instructions to get CURTESY, thereby eliminating any chance of getting SESTET.

    This is the first Prize I haven’t been able to finish for a long time, so the outage of 15² was particularly annoying.

    Thanks again to Ken and Andy.

  13. Thanks Brummie. I found this to be smooth sailing for the most part. I needed a word finder for TEREDOS and I couldn’t parse YIELD but all else fell into place without problem. I never spotted the problem with CURTSEY — sometimes I see what I want, not what’s there. I missed the theme (thanks lenmasterman @5) even though TUT was front and center. I had many favourites including ODEON, ERRATUM, NESSIE, DRUMBEAT, MUMMY, EARNINGS, TEST TUBE, and KING. Thanks bridgesong for the blog.

  14. I enjoyed this, but was annoyed with myself for missing the evident theme around King Tut and Howard Carter. It’s a shame about CURTSEY, but the intention was obvious. I liked KNEE, YIELD and EGYPT.

    Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong.

  15. Like lenmasterman @5, I only twigged the theme at the end. I thought this was relatively straightforward for Brummie. YIELD and HIGH-HANDED were my faves.

    Ta Brummie & bridgesong.

  16. Poc@8

    “surely the cleverness defeats the purpose if the solver can’t understand it”

    I think the other solver managed to crack it.

  17. No wonder I had trouble sorting this one out, a clue was changed mid-week, so confusing, tut tut!

    I too, thought PERM a possible hidden answer in 24 down, and semi amusing.

    I also wondered if 13 across was a triple definition, AIM plus TO TAKE HUNTED ANIMALS plus
    WHEN MATING IS IMMINENT?

    Also not very impressed with CAVE IN.

  18. Belatedly, it occurs to me that DETECTOR is also part of the theme: HOWARD CARTER, TOMB DETECTOR.

  19. I really enjoyed this although I didn’t manage to get SESTET – had to ask for help on the Guardian blog. Glad 225 is back.

    Didn’t notice the theme – how could I have missed it?

    Thanks both

  20. “Provoked” can mean “stirred up” (as in “stirred up trouble”), so it seems a reasonable anagram indicator to me.

    Thanks Brummie and Birdsong!

  21. Like others above, I found this hard in places, and gave up with three still to finish in top left corner. I should have got ENDGAME and NESSIE, but I disagree with HOWARD as a queen. Who ever speaks of Queen Howard? I had DEFECTOR with the same justification as TC@12. I also had TAT. I didn’t spot the theme, so missed the hint for TUT. I liked quite a few other clues, especially YIELD when I finally spotted CAVE IN. Overall then, a hardish puzzle, but reasonably satisfying.

  22. Just read the blog on this. I was held up for ages after putting CONGO, G in criminal (CON) and O (blood type) for 13d and not questioning it. I wonder if anyone else did this.

  23. Pense @22: I see what you mean, but I think that “type” to indicate a blood group without any other indication is a bit of a stretch.

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